Good morning @PuzzleGirl and @Tinbeni! Came in under half an hour on this one, so easy Sunday for me (especially as I began my solving-crosswords-with-beer training regimen when the NBA playoffs pre-game show started in CST, and the LAT doesn’t post here till midnight).

Yes, the Donne quotation was nice, especially so because the clue provided the elegant phrase ending which is rarely heard. It made me think “Wouldn’t a big-grid puzzle with theme answers made from unfinished famous phrases be cool?” But, alas, it turned out to be another poster child for “Why Even Bother?” I didn’t even look for the country names in the theme answers when I got donne. Fun puzzle, despite a yawner of a theme.

Have to agree with @Tinbeni, this was pretty easy. Actually, more of a slog, but enjoyable. Very little worn out fill, EXCEPT for one of my most detested, EATAT... I really don't like this expression. Someday I'll tell you how I feel about this.

Very few write-overs -- BLAse for BLAHS, oRS for ERS, LeanER for LANKER, puisANT for GALLANT, etc. Had to laugh at IMALITTLETEAPOT, which can only be described as cute. I really thought Taj MAHAL was spelled with a J. (In fact, I still think so.)

I too thought this was rather easy once I figured out the theme, though I hate having to jump around the grid to find the theme pairs, especially solving online.

Also, I was looking for the countries to be divided a bit differently, i.e. TONSOFCARGO (TO GO physically split up) rather than TIMETOGOHOME (TOGO together but split across words. If that makes sense. Haven't had caffeine yet.

I so so wanted 44D to be "a step to the right" :-) Kept trying to make it fit, but it just wouldn't, even though it has the right number of letters... Plugging in MALI from 56A, into the one place the crosses would let it go, finally put me straight.

But then he more than made up for it by putting a shoutout to HEROES right next door at 96D. \o/

64A: The clue "More 47-Down" strikes me as dubious. I don't think LANK(er) connotes the level of emaciation that GAUNT does, which would make it less thin than the latter.

Coincident with 41D LOD as 'City served by Ben Gurion airport', per the Wikipedia main page On this day...May 30 includes: Lod Massacre Remembrance Day (1972) in Puerto Rico - because the victims included 16 Christian pilgrims therefrom in the attack using "violin cases containing Czech Vz 58 assault-rifles with the butt-stocks"...

@chefbea If you get the actual LA Times paper like I do because I live in the greater Los Angeles area, you only get the Calendar section puzzle which alternates between Sylvia Bursztyn or Merl Reagle. The puzzle that all other papers publish is a syndicated puzzle. That one I can only print out or do online. Puzzle Girl never discusses either puzzle on Sunday. I assume its because it's her day of rest, but she does put the grid answers and theme answers for both puzzles on the LACC blog.Just tackled this puzzle after a long, hot day in the garden. If all goes as planned, I should be able to supply the entire neighborhood with vegetables by the end of the summer. Already, the tomatoes are the biggest I've ever grown. The squash blossoms are ABLOOM. Lovely (?) scented organic amendments seem to be doing the trick.

I found the puzzle to be easy and pleasant after the last couple days. I liked the theme and the countries *were* divided in that the whole name was divided into two separate words.

Thought it was interesting to have LASSO, LARIAT and NOOSE in the same puzzle??

Thinking of all veterans, current troops, moms, dads, husbands, wives, parents kids and sibs on this Memorial Day.

Back in the day, Memorial Day was Rememberance Day. Also, Veterans Day was Armistice Day.

These day were made holidays after "the war to end all wars" (WWI) then we had to change them as we found out that no war will end all wars (see WWII). Armegeddon is the only way to end war, and I think no even then it's a bit iffy. Rams and bucks will rut, cocks will fight... it's not just Human nature - it's nature.

I liked this puzzle (only just got it today) and am relatively new to crosswords, but it wasn't too bad. I thought the couuntries would be split among the words, but perhaps it's saying these countries are divided? Iran between the Shi'ites and Sunnis, and didn't Greece have a Civil War recently? Maybe I'm just thinking I know more than I do.

For some reason, I thought Swedish import was IKEA and then SPAS (until that was 78D)... that threw me off for a while. And there was the confusion with vaLiANT and GALLANT that took a while to figure out.

Glad to finally have the opportunity to do an Estes creation. I had high expectations and they were easily met!

This theme was old hat to me because coincidentally I had recently created a similar quiz for the trivia website Sporcle. I even had about half of the theme entries as answers in my quiz. Here's the link if you are interested in trying it out:

http://www.sporcle.com/games/cheezguyty/hidden_countries

You can click on my screen name to play any of my other quizzes. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think!

(To our beloved bloggers: I apologize if you don't like external links in your comments. I just thought some of your readers would enjoy some of my word and trivia puzzles.)